Girls steal the show: Lady Pioneers use balance and defense in Friday’s win against SMNW

Friday

Jan 10, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 10, 2014 at 11:51 PM

By JASON STRICKLAND

The Leavenworth High School girls basketball team outscored Shawnee Mission Northwest 24-4 in the third quarter Friday in a 67-44 win.The Lady Pioneers started the game with a 7-0 run, which was capped of with senior Emma Zeck’s 3-pointer from the right wing.It would become a 9-3 lead with 5:19 left in the first quarter, but the Lady Cougars took an 18-12 lead into the second quarter.Junior Tyler Johnson, who led LHS with 16 points, got blood on her jersey and had to change it early in the game.“When we had the blood jersey problem, I got a little bit irritated and my players started playing rattled because I got rattled,” LHS head coach Derek Zeck said. The remaining points in the first quarter for LHS were three free throws. SMNW made three 3-pointers in the final 3:23 of the opening quarter, including one with 10 seconds left after stealing the Lady Pioneers’ inbound pass.LHS would make a run and take the lead with 3:13 left in the first half after Moore scored on a running layup to make it 21-20. It would go back and forth the rest of the half and LHS took a 27-25 lead into halftime. The third quarter was all LHS. It would score the first 10 points of the second half, including a steal and layup by junior Tashia Jones and a layup by Johnson. “That was the turning point of the game,” coach Zeck said. “Early on, I didn’t do a good job. We got them settled down at halftime and we were able to come out and do the things that we can do.”The lead would grow to 15 with 2:51 left in the third quarter after a 3-pointer from the right wing by sophomore Alicia Brown and a layup by junior Rachel Blackburn.Johnson would make it a 20-point lead with 1:09 left in the third after making two-of-four free throws in an 18-second span. Jones, who scored 13 points and led the team with 10 rebounds, knocked down a pair of free throws to make it 51-29 going into the fourth quarter.Zeck scored 12 points, with three of them coming from the right corner with 6:42 left in the game. She also had three steals.Moore led the team with six steals, including one that led to Blackburn’s layup that made it a 15-point game in the third quarter.“I thought in the third quarter we were very efficient,” coach Zeck sais. “We scored quick, and if we didn’t, we pulled out and ran good offense.”LHS had balanced scoring by having six players with at least seven points.Brown had eight points, while Moore and Blackburn each scored seven. “We have so many different weapons,” coach Zeck said.The LHS boys team lost 81-44 to SMNW.Head coach Larry Hogan said the Cougars controlled the rebounds and drove to the basket most of the game.Senior Cameron Wiggins and sophomore Dominique Miller scored 15 and 13, respectively. LHS will return with a doubleheader at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lawrence Free State.

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